figadapaura
Member
That'd be so amazing if they did. I won't get my hopes up too high though, just as long as they do better hair I'll be happy.
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The Mass Effect Community Thread
- Thread starter shinobi602
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That'd be so amazing if they did. I won't get my hopes up too high though, just as long as they do better hair I'll be happy.
I get that, but them taking so long to put the game in pre-order, give a release date or at least show the game cover, in the year of Destiny, Batman: Arkham Knight and the typical COD and AC, seems suicidal to me.
Guessing we'll get most of that at E3.
Really, the only strange thing to me is that it's not up for pre-order yet.
The only problem with this is that, as far as we know about First Contact War, there weren't that many skirmishes surrounding humanity's contact with the Turians. We made contact, there was a misunderstanding, then a skirmish...then a slightly larger skirmish (not even full-out war), then the rest of the galactic community intervened and it was over. The whole thing was done with relatively quickly.
There's just not a whole lot of action to draw from that. Not a lot of interaction between to two "warring" races outside of those two relatively small skirmishes. There was no other threat, no other source of tension. And don't forget this is a game, there needs to be action. And I don't think a game that largely involves you running back and forth through the halls of global congress trying to figure out what the hell to do about these aliens we encountered would be very interesting, and that was pretty much all the The First Contact War really was.
To make First Contact a big enough event to build a game out of, they'd have to turn into something other than what they've made it out to be: a slight "incident."
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Eat children,
Do you feel that losing Drew K hurt the story for ME3?
My opinion is absolutely yes. I felt that he wouldn't have resorted to a MacGuffin storyline and that the overall story would have been better.
Do you feel that losing Drew K hurt the story for ME3?
My opinion is absolutely yes. I felt that he wouldn't have resorted to a MacGuffin storyline and that the overall story would have been better.
figadapaura
Member
I'd be very surprised if they didn't. And really disappointed.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
So I am replaying the series all over again, this time as a soldier FemShep that stays on the paragon side.
It's annoying how in ME1 and ME2 you need to actually keep choosing one morality over another for fear that the points you get will not be enough to unlock something down the line :/// Hopefully they keep the ME3 system in the future games as well.
So! Who's the best guy for FemShep? In ME1 my FemShep hooks up with Kaidan since, well, pretty much Paragon is forced to do that unless I decided to kill him in Virmire, but in ME2 the option gets wider so maybe... my FemShep needs to change her partner, hahaha (and I can justify it in my mind with how the Virmire Survivor acting as a jerkass towards Shepard anyways)
It's annoying how in ME1 and ME2 you need to actually keep choosing one morality over another for fear that the points you get will not be enough to unlock something down the line :/// Hopefully they keep the ME3 system in the future games as well.
So! Who's the best guy for FemShep? In ME1 my FemShep hooks up with Kaidan since, well, pretty much Paragon is forced to do that unless I decided to kill him in Virmire, but in ME2 the option gets wider so maybe... my FemShep needs to change her partner, hahaha (and I can justify it in my mind with how the Virmire Survivor acting as a jerkass towards Shepard anyways)
I say abandon the paragon/renegade dynamic entirely in favor of something closer to what Dragon Age is trying to do. I liked that Hawke in DA2 is seen as either brusque and tough or snarky and clever. It wasn't perfect, but definitely better than ME's black and white take on morality.
I think a paragon FemShep could hook up with either Kaidan or Liara in ME1. I stuck with Kaidan for the trilogy (and briefly slept with Jacob because he's pretty much a black Kaidan with nicer abs).
Doctoglethorpe
Member
Didn't ask me but.. I think its less the loss of Drew and more the rise of Big Mac. Just my harsh opinion, but the guy clearly couldn't handle it. He wrote very fun one-dimensional characters (lets be honest, thats what they are, fun but simple, I love Wrex but he's no masterpiece) but you need to be able to do more then that to handle the leadership role. I think there are others on the team, or even outside the team, that could have taken it over and done it justice, in fact I'd go as far as to say Drew ain't the bees knees himself (but capable) so it could of been even better. Weekes is the first to come to mind of course.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Liara's ME1 romance weirded me out :/
I mean, it's astonishing how quick she is from knowing Shepard to wanting to jump into his/her pants. Like, 1 or 2 missions short; that's disturbing for me, especially since the game's trying to sell her as having a naive personality.
Also, a note:
I am heavily disappointed that the Dark Energy route they took in ME2 was abandoned in ME3. Sacrificing humanity to save the galaxy vs. Saving humanity but forfeiting the galaxy is a much, much better moral dilemma than the stupid RGB solution we got
Nostremitus
Member
The Hanar homeworld?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Yeah true, though as an open world fantasy game maybe they feel they have a spot, especially since there's no Elder Scrolls to compete with, and The Witcher has been pushed into next year.
I think so yes, but I don't hold Drew up on a pedestal either, nor feel Walters is totally useless. As far as I'm aware he wrote both Garrus and Wrex in Mass Effect, along with Garrus' story arc in Mass Effect 2. I don't think he's a bad writer so much as maybe a weak lead writer, as both ME2 and ME3 have the most fragmented main narratives (ME2 especially). But it's really impossible to tell without knowing who exactly wrote what. People kept attributing Cerberus rise into a super group in ME2 to Walters, but then I heard that was Drew's doing, so *shrug*.
That being said, I feel the MacGuffin is both their fault, because I maintain that they wrote themselves into a corner with the first game. I've said this since before Mass Effect 2 came out: ending the first game on "we stopped the Reapers, but...the Reapers!" was doomed to cause problems and make the first game inconsequential. The wrote a mysterious, unfathomably powerful nemesis desperately fighting for its return for the return of its kind after almost being beaten by the previous cycle, then defeated, only to then in the same breath say there's more and they're coming so we have to beat them too. I've always felt Mass Effect was written under the the possibility there wouldn't be any more games regardless of intentions, but they had to leave room for a sequel. So we got the Reapers returning in all their might, and suddenly BioWare is faced with the problem of how to believably get rid of them.
The MacGuffin was dumb but I feel they in many ways doomed themselves once the credits rolled in Mass Effect 1.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Maybe they should have taken Dead Space 3's route; it's an interesting take on how to end a game in such a despairing note, hahaha.
Liara, there's no1 else for shep!
What?! For me it felt like forever! And they had sex only at the ending, right?
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Nah, my sequence of events with her in ME1 was like this:
Saving her and her joining my team > doing whatever mission > talk to her again ---> she immediately stated she found Shepard "interesting." Only like 1 or 2 missions in-between before she's asking my FemShep (or any other Shepards I played) whether they can be romantically involved or not. So quick!
Also, interestingly, since the crew like Ashley at that point already pointed out that Kaidan's "acting sweet" on my FemShep, this is also something that Liara acknowledges, but--here's the thing--she also insinuated that she will keep pursuing my Shepard at first even though she knew about her and Kaidan... which comes up as a surprise to me, to be honest, hahaha.
Well, at least after I made my FemShep flat out refused her she stopped doing it again. Still, her ME1 romance truly weirded me out :/ Which is unfortunate, since her ME2 and ME3 were much better (though I always favored Tali over her if I played MaleShep. Tali seems much more natural to me than Liara if we are talking about progression of romance)
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Yes and No. Revealing the Reaper's motivation was always doomed to fail after they make promises about being incomprehensible to the human mind. But actually defeating the Reapers could have been justified in a clever way. I've posted about this before, but the cliff notes version is you answer this dilemma in part by plugging another irritating open question.
One answer to the question of why the Reapers didn't simply fly back after ME1 is that they couln't in good order. You could say that in order to make it back, the Reaper drive cores and fuel needed to be cannabalized from each other so that only a fraction of the full fleet could return, leaving the rest stranded in dark space. Therefore, the Citadel fleets only actually need to face perhaps 1/3 or 1/4 of the Reaper armada.
Technical jargon explanation:
They need to bring multiple drive cores with them to prevent a lethal drivecore electrical buildup on the return trip - basically they reach near-capacity on one, rip it out and replace it with another, which they can then use to drive them further back with conventional FTL.
The other half of the puzzle is the salvaged reaper tech and secret weapons under development by species of the galaxy. ME2 had Thanix gun, that asari diamond armor ugprade, new thrusters for combat manueverability, new Alliance torpedos... The Batarians also had some grand orbital laser superweapon mentioned in Cerberus news network feeds. Potentially you had salvaged Collector technology from ME2 depending on ending.
With another year or two between ME2 and an alternative ME3, the Citadel fleets could plausibly be able to stop Reapers when they concentrate fire on them in great numbers. I'm not saying dreadnoughts would go 1-1 against them and win, just that they now have weapons capable of doing real damage instead of having to kill Saren to drop shields before they could scratch it ala ME1.
This sets the stage for a military victory made at great cost. Shepard's role as a diplomat and gathere of forces would still be basically similar to what he did in ME3. Except instead of just acting as a meat shield for Shepard to deploy the McGuffin, the combined fleets could have a badass epic showdown.
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Why the Reapers not bothering to attack Citadel right away in ME3 is something that I can never understand. Instead they make pit stops here and there first, while it's established in ME1 that they always took Citadel first before conquering other targets.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
From what I have gathered when comparing Mac and Drew is this:
Drew is great at providing a large story, which Mac is better with little things such as characters.
This makes sense when you consider that the first Mass Effect has the best overall story, but probably the weakest connection to the characters, while ME3 has very strong character moments it has a very weak overall plot. It felt very stitched together and it just never felt fully formed. ME2 I felt got a decent balance, eventhough the human reaper was criticized. Had Drew K remained on board my feeling is that the human reaper and dark energy subplot would have played a larger role. I actually liked the little bit I had read about dark energy. Other people felt it would have been worse than Starchild <gasp>
But I do agree that in many ways they had written themselves into a corner. One of the biggest hindsight mistakes in ME2 was allowing the suicide mission deaths to be permanent. That really tied their hands in ME3, but had they removed that option ME2 would not have had the emotional impact that it did.
[WARNING: FAN WANK AHEAD] I have an alternate ME2 in my head where you have Cerebus closer to their evil ME1 incarnation having intercepted the pieces of Sovereign to study how to utilize indoctrination and subsequently becoming indoctrinated. They infiltrate and take over the Alliance government and frame Shepard for something, which forces her to go on the run to the Terminus System with no resources.
The story then becomes about Shepard trying to assemble a team to take down Cerberus while Cerberus is trying to destabilize the Council from within while simultaneously devising a way to bring the Reapers back.
A story like that would replace the unbeatable Reapers with a more beatable but still powerful Cerberus organization. Hell, if they really wanted to, they could have Cerberus somehow revive Sovereign still trapped in Saren's ruined body, thus creating something akin to a Darth Vader type figure for the series and a clear antagonist who can be fought, which is something the later games lacked.
Sure, you lose the whole "shades of grey" elements of Cerberus but given that the games jettisoned that idea in ME3 I'm not sure it's any great loss.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Any rumours about the multiplayer? Hope they keep it, put microtransactions more in the background (maybe go Dota-style, where real money only buys aesthetic items) and make more expansive maps with more objectives.
There is zero question about whether they'll keep it. It was extremely successful and very lucrative for EA. Successful enough that they're looking to implement the same-style MP in Dragon Age.
I also doubt they'll change how the microtransactions work given how much money it brought in.
TC McQueen
Member
Not really, because I never got the feeling that he was particularly strong writer and his dark energy ending was insanely dumb (like "franchise ruining plot hole" dumb). And to be honest, the plot was never really the strength of Mass Effect - it was the characters and universe that made Mass Effect so successful. And Walters had a better grasp on that than Drew seemed to, which is why ME2 is so enjoyable, even though its main plot is mostly irrelevant to the game and franchise.
digoutyoursoul
Member
Saw this today browsing google images and thought it would make a great box art if they re-released the trilogy on PS4/Xb1.
Saw this today browsing google images and thought it would make a great box art if they re-released the trilogy on PS4/Xb1.
I want it for my desktop
The_Hitcher89
Member
I can live with that
Most important thing I want from SP is more worthwhile side-missions, with atmospheric locations made just for it. Like a more detailed version of those in ME1
figadapaura
Member
Saw this today browsing google images and thought it would make a great box art if they re-released the trilogy on PS4/Xb1.
As long as they make a reversible cover with FemShep on it, I think it would be great.
Saw this today browsing google images and thought it would make a great box art if they re-released the trilogy on PS4/Xb1.
Don't play with my emotions like that
thechristoph
Sir!
Raising my hand about Dark Energy being worse than what we got, here. I know it's a real thing, but it just sounds so... oogie boogie.
IMO the Starchild is pretty cool when you realize its visual representation is just the manifestation of Shepard's guilt. The whole game built up to it.
I think the main problem with ME3's reception is simpler than what most people think: ME3 tried to be more about Shepard and the people didn't like that, because to them, THEY were Shepard. Their Shep wouldn't have nightmares about the kid she couldn't save; she'd have a renegade interrupt to kick her bad dreams out a window.
I just gave myself an idea: Paragon Shep's catalyst would be the kid: the guilt he feels for not stopping the war. Renegade's Shep's catalyst would be Saren: the confrontation and struggle he felt throughout the whole ordeal. Hell yeah, someone give me Casey Hudson's phone number.
I thought the human Reaper was pretty awesome too, even if it just ended up looking like half of a giant Terminator and was pretty much the most basic of "shoot weak point for massive damage" videogame bosses. Imagine the reactions, though, if ME3 had a horde of human Reapers deployed on Earth. It was probably for the best that the human Reaper idea was not revisted.
I guess you're right it wouldn't be enough to fill three games with (unless they do make it more of a dialog game like TWD). I was thinking mainly of Starship Troopers that was also really only three skirmishes, but was still a full out action movie about 'interstellar war'. As long as you have proper buildup, a few incidents can feel major.
If you read the book, you'll see that Starship Troopers was a full-out war with casualties in the millions.
The First Contact War had casualties in the hundreds, at the most.
Seriously, I cannot emphasize enough that most species in the universe consider a barely noteworthy incident.
figadapaura
Member
That wouldn't really work for me. I play as a mostly Paragon Shepard and I still can't stand that kid/the catalyst. It felt far too forced and I couldn't understand why my Shep cared so much about him that she was having nightmares.
Successful enough to release a carbon copy with Plants and Zombies!
Though (TOTAL SPECULATION) they had to back down on initial microtransactions because of that whole kerfuffle.
Now time for dumb comparisons: The First Contact War would be like an alternate Falklands War. In this alternate reality the U.N. steps in before the English fleet arrives to enact a scorched earth policy on Argentina.
The whole Shepard becoming Saren subplot was wildly underutilized.
Then again I was also hoping they would go all Blood Music with the catalyst. This deals with the Reapers without destroying everything and makes fleet rating meaningful. A united Reaper front should make whatever fleet you bring together irrelevant, but that's another discussion. Some Reapers stay reaping, others demand their homeworld back and others strike out to settle old scores. Sets up massive turmoil for a potential sequel while maintaining a Reaper threat.
At least Virmire casualty should have been 'Ghost Kid.' Imagine a hallucination of Virmire victim saving the kid in that early scene. Now the kid's death becomes more canonically relevant. Helps reinforce the feeling of your choices coming back to you.
Finally, Cerberus was right. Earth first.
digoutyoursoul
Member
prag16
Banned
Heh, the movie was loosely loosely loosely based on the book. If they changed all the names and made a couple other minor changes, it would be almost totally unrecognizable as having anything at all to do with the book.
The movie was okay, one of those "it's so bad it's good" deals. The book was much better; a classic.
royox
Member
Off-topic, but I strongly disagree. The Starship Troopers movie was a great satirical take on fascism and war propaganda, while the novel was a straightforward juvenile power-fantasy.
i thought after 2 full playthroughs of the trilogy i'd be done for at least a few years but i'm getting the itch to start a third one soon!
prag16
Banned
I may be selling the movie short to some degree, but it really doesn't sound like we read the same book. Like at all. I don't even necessarily agree with the political views usually attributed to Heinlen. But yeah; off topic. Not worth arguing about. Carry on with MOAR MASS EFFECT. The wait for any kind of scrap of info is killing me...
If we take the "Exploration" mission statement to be true, will this also mean the soundtrack will be resonate with those of us who loved ME1?
Aside from Cyberpunk 2077 which may potentially feature relatively esoteric soundtracks, is there another project in recent memory which has an eclectic collection of synth tracks as ME1?
Aside from Cyberpunk 2077 which may potentially feature relatively esoteric soundtracks, is there another project in recent memory which has an eclectic collection of synth tracks as ME1?
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
To this day I still believe that IT was what Bioware was going for when they had the Starchild.
But we will never know and that's not the ending we got.
Nothing would thrill me more than we, one day, get a book on the development of the Mass Effect trilogy and on what went on in the heads of Walters and Hudson that made them believe the Starchild was a good idea.
Getting some brutally honest uncensored interviews and some thoughts from guys like Drew K.
It probably won't happen, but it's one book I would snatch up in a heartbeat.
This game and Duke Nukem Forever would have great books.
But we will never know and that's not the ending we got.
Nothing would thrill me more than we, one day, get a book on the development of the Mass Effect trilogy and on what went on in the heads of Walters and Hudson that made them believe the Starchild was a good idea.
Getting some brutally honest uncensored interviews and some thoughts from guys like Drew K.
It probably won't happen, but it's one book I would snatch up in a heartbeat.
This game and Duke Nukem Forever would have great books.
prag16
Banned
Patrick Weekes and Drew Karpyshyn (especially Weekes) did make some comments a while back; those can probably be dug up somewhere.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
I seem to recall some of that being mentioned, but my understanding is that those comments were never verified as being real.
Someone fill me in.
Eat Children?
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
How do you know it was "dumb"? It never got used. We have no idea how it would have been explained/implemented.
The whole organics vs. synthetics argument was so dumb.
Saw this today browsing google images and thought it would make a great box art if they re-released the trilogy on PS4/Xb1.
Man, that looks fantastic.
prag16
Banned
I actually don't have a problem with the concept they went with. Tech singulariity is a very real theory.
And no, getting along with the Geth and EDI does NOT prove it can't happen (this is the excuse trotted out most often to justify the xzibit argument).
Not that the concept was great, but in a vacuum I don't agree with its out of hand dismissal as dumb or illogical.
The execution on the other hand. THAT I have numerous problems with, obviously.
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